First Half Open Comment Thread

It doesn’t take a vast reservoir of football knowledge to realize that the Bulldog coaching staff likely challenged their team to play better this Saturday than they did last. The question, the one which we do not know the answer to, is how they will respond.

I doubt that they won’t respond at all. The question will be whether they come out too high and tight, making mistakes that Missouri could make them pay for. Or will they come out focused and ready to play. I once remember reading an interview with Nick Saban from his days at LSU in which he talked about the optimal state of mind for a college football team heading into a big game being something like “a prepared calm.”

The idea is that you can be entirely too amped up, spending adrenaline, and end up falling flat on your face. The best case scenario is to have prepared efficiently in the days and weeks beforehand so that you know that you’re ready and then simply go out and enjoy doing what you know to do.

I’m curious to see if this team can balance their desire to prove last week was not who they are with the ability to calmly execute this week’s game plan. Let’s find out.